In the prior art, finely ground powders or flours of cereal grains have been additionally used to make the outer shell component of food products such as: 1) toasted pastry products, 2) filled pasta products such as ravioli, dumplings, and turnovers, 3) fat fried egg rolls and pizza rolls, 4) burritos, and 5) pot pies that have a filling enclosed within an outer shell. The most popular of the finely ground powders or flours has been wheat flour because when mixed, wheat flour and water develops into a homogeneous dough that has special properties that include: a) elasticity, i.e. with this property, the sheets of dough can be stretched like elastic. b) the uncooked gluten dough irreversibly firms when heated, c) wheat gluten dough sheets are very structurally strong, d) the gluten structure of the wheat flour and water doughs are able to retain the dispersed gases and the expansion of the structure can be controlled when baked.
There are also dual textured food products that have fruit fillings and oatmeal cookie dough-like shells, made from a wheat flour and water dough, that also contains very small pieces of dry oat flakes dispersed together with the wheat dough mixture.
There are also several patents: U.S. Pat. No. 3,711,295; U.S. Pat. No. 3,961,087; U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,390; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,745 that teach how to make shaped grain products. However, these patents generally teach how to make shaped grain products having both their interiors and exteriors comprised of cereal grains. U.S. Pat. No. 5,137,745 teaches how to produce open-faced grain cups, which could be filled with food, the food thereby comprising a second component. However, the prior art open-faced grain cups having a filling component: a) cannot be heated in a pop-up toaster because the component will spill out and burn when the grain cup is inserted into the toaster slots; b) could spill out if the unit is inverted or tipped while being transported in a car, on a bicycle, or in a backpack; and c) ate mote expensive to package because the units have to be specially positioned fight-side up in the packaging container so the interior filling component will not spill out.
Although grain cups with an open-faced filling component are taught in the prior art, it would be useful if grain food products were available which not only offered the healthy, wholesome, nutrition of traditional entrees made with whole cereal grains such as rice topped with chunks of vegetables and meat or cooked oatmeal topped with chunks of fruit, but also had the additional benefits of being: 1) re-heatable from the frozen state by inserting into a pop-up toaster; 2) transportable without spillage, and 3) packaged more inexpensively. The products of the present invention offer these additional benefits.